Cheap starch not good for Korean feed

Increasing grain prices and a shortage of corn due to a surge in bioethanol
production are significantly impacting on the South Korean feed industry.
According to agriculture to aquaculture specialists Kiotechagil, corn supplies
are dwindling and some mills are expecting to run out of wheat in the next few
months.

Murray Hyden, chief technical officer at Kiotechagil explained, "South Korea
has a strong and growing animal feed industry but this situation has lead to a
change in the feed formulations used in Korea. Feed mills are now buying any
starch materials that they can, and imports of manioc starch are increasing to
make up the deficit."

"Manioc starch lost popularity in Europe due
to slow gelatinisation through pelleting operations," explained Hyden.
"Conditioning times in Korea are very short at 10 – 15 seconds rather than the
60 seconds normally used in the UK. Short conditioning times do not
pregelatinise the manioc and as a result pellet quality is falling."

Hyden suggests the use of a low inclusion binder like Kiotechagil's
MASTERCUBE which will compensate for the slow gelatinisation of manioc
starches. It will also reduce the need for double conditioning and double
pelleting and can therefore replace expensive and increasing energy costs with
an easy to use formulation change.